Penningtons Manches Cooper has partnered with Beauhurst, a leading private company data platform, to launch its latest report on the UK spinouts landscape, Investment into Spinouts 2026.
The publication offers a comprehensive overview of investment into UK spinouts, including trends in equity deployment, grant funding, regional performance and sector level dynamics.
It highlights the continued strength of the UK’s ‘Golden Triangle’ universities, with Cambridge, Oxford and London again securing the highest levels of spinout investment. It also examines the rise of early stage dealmaking, the growing presence of AI focused spinouts, and the changing role of public funders.
Its key findings include:
- equity investment totalled £1.96 billion across 384 deals, reflecting a more selective but still resilient market for university‑linked innovation
- despite a fall in the overall number of grants, the average grant size rose by 10.96% to reach £423k
- the life sciences, digital and technology sectors dominated deal volume, reflecting government priority areas. Within digital and technology, AI, sensors, robotics, and image/voice recognition achieved notably higher average deal values
- the Golden Triangle universities continue to lead, with Cambridge and Oxford spinouts combined raising more than £800m, but regional ecosystems are showing growing strength, including in Edinburgh, Bristol and Manchester.
- Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire local authorities forming the UK’s largest innovation cluster and Cambridge spinouts securing a total of £486m in equity funding
Click here for more details and to download the full report.